Welcome Back To My Blog

Some of you know I have been making memory twisted easel cards for the Sandy Hook families.  It became very involved because I decided to add charms to them showing what their parents, family, etc. had shared about their favorite things and accomplishments were.

That being said, my neighbor saw them and asked if I could make one for her grand daughter's graduation from college with a nursing degree.  This one is done as a grad beach party with charms for the lanterns.  Above is the result and below is how I did it:

Images Cardfront:

1. Stamped Path To The Beach with Memento Desert Sand on Natural Neenah Cardstock, painted with Twinkling H2O's, cut out with largest Romantic Rectangles die, threaded with twine, and attached to a piece of 6"X4" Solar White cardstock.  Added Gold Dust to highlight sand with glue for glitter.
2. Stamped the grass from Beachcomber with Memento Desert Sand, trimmed and painted with twinks. Turned over and used stylus on emboss mat to give depth.
3. Resized digital Girl Walking On Beach, mirrored image in PSP X2 photo program, changed color of image from black to beige, and cut out.  Turned over and embossed with stylus. Painted with twinks and mounted on grass.
4. Used 3D pop dots on back and mounted to image.
5. Found free images of Stargazer lily online, painted with twinks trimmed, embossed with stylus on the back and attached to girls dress.
6. Mounted to scene.
7. Sentiment was stamped with Toffee Crunch.

Card Fold:

1. Go here to see how I did this twisted easel base.  It is 6" in width and 4" wide. and Neenah Solar White cardstock.

Card Base:

1. Cut a piece of 5.75"X3.75" Natural cardstock and mounted in the middle of the base.
2. Used IO Grass Border to cut grass for the the edges as shown.
3. Mounted 2-3mm heats to the edges.
4. Cut the base for the photo from Spellbinders Splendid Circles die.  Her photo was emailed from the grandparent and transferred onto photo paper.  The die was used as a stencil.  I did one of these for each Sandy Hook child or teacher.
5. The shells and sand were added to the corner using real shells with a tiny heart pearl in the center shell.  The bow is from May Arts ribbon.

Charms:

1. I made a list of what I thought she would be using as a Neonatal Nurse.  Next I searched Charm findings sites, Etsy, and EBay.  It's amazing what is out there that doesn't cost a lot.  For the Sandy Hook cards I did the same and included Charmtastic and Charm It! charms.  It really didn't cost that much.  Some even include free shipping.  Charms are small!!

Envy & Note:

1. The envelope card was stamped as shown.  The note stationary also has an envelope since there is no room to write on the card itself.

As a last thought and in case Amanda doesn't like charm bracelets, I built a mini floating heart locket key chain.  What nurse doesn't have a lot of keys.  I saw the lockets while hunting for all the charms I have needed and found these itty bitty ones.   Take a close look.  You can find charms for anything in this size.  The prices are as little as $1.  The lockets start at around $6.  How fun.  The heart says "Love My Grand Daughter" and the other one says "Believe In Miracles".

That's it for today.  Thanks for waiting and for stopping by to look and share.  Hope to see you sooner than later.  ;-)

 

 Shirley

 

SUPPLIES:

Nautilus Shell At The Beach

I love a lot of Stamp Zia stamps because they remind me of Art Deco. I have both the 3" and 5.5" stamps of the above image. It is called Shellscape Sphere. She offers her stamps in:

• Unmounted



• Mounted with vinyl or



• Mounted to Acrylic block

The image was stamped with Galaxy Gold, what else is new, and painted with Twinks. The shell was done with Jones Tones Foil. The technique is shown in my tutorial at the Impression-Obsession blog HERE. After using Jones Tones Foil, I always go over it with a thin layer of Glossy Accents. Mica Gold Flakes from USArt Quest were added to simulate sand.

The sphere around the image is a cut and embossed circle from Spellbinders Large Circle Dies. The punched holes are from an EK Success Small Shapes punch. Mark Richards 5mm pearls were mounted in between. 3D Pop Up Dots were used under the image and also under the punched circle die cut.

The background bottom layer is Neenah Classic Laid Solar White. The next layer is Bazzill Bling Sparkle. I used Classic Laid Solar White left overs after the die cut was removed. They are from the Cuttlebug Floral Borders Die set. They looked like waves to me.

The ribbon is from May Arts and I tied it Martha Stewart Style.

Stamps: Stamp Zia Shellscape Sphere
Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Super Smooth and Laid cardstock, Bazzill Bling Sparkle cardstock
Ink: Brilliance Galaxy Gold, Twinkling H2O's
Accessories: *Jones Tones Pearl Swirl Foil and Foil Glue, USArt Quest Gold Mica Flakes, Jones Tones Pearl Swirl Foil and Foil Glue, Glossy Accents, EK Success Small Shaper Punch, Mark Richards 5mm Pearls, May Arts Ribbon, 3D Pop Up Dots.

*Jones Tones Pearl Swirl Foil is transparent and takes on the color underneath. It give a Mother of Pearl look here, but can also take on a Gold Fish look like HERE. Their Swirl, however is not transparent and can pass for a Faux Dichroic look, like HERE, or it can also be used for Faux Abalone Shell, also called Paua shell by New Zealanders.

I thank you all for stopping by 'the blog' to look and share today. Hope your Mother's Day is all you have wished it to be!

 

 Shirley

 

So Glad To Be Back

Every since I saw this card by Linda Duke on Linda's Works Of The Heart blog, I have wanted to do something similar for months. Well, I ordered the Poppy Patch set from Flourishes and there it sat too. Last week I visited Phree at Ink Stain Survivor (she hadn't been around in a while) , saw her 'Shirley Poppies' card and the came on! So now you know where my ideas come from and probably why I only get one or two cards done in a week. Ha! I think I even have some of these flowers in my yard. I never knew there were Shirley Poppies! I built this card from the background up to allow for the punched border first and then all of the materials inside of it.

Card Fold:
1. I cut a bigger card than I would have because punching the border causes a loss of about 1/4" on length and a little less on the width after punching the border. I cut a 5.5"x11" piece of paper. I have 5.5 square envelopes, and needed a little bit smaller card.

2. Using Fiskars Apron Lace Border Punch, I punched the right end, or center piece, of the border first. I knew by looking at my pre-punched sample that I needed to have one complete half-circle on the right and the left ends for the "going around the corner" to work. *After the center part is done I work totally from the back side of the punch (It's turned upside down so you can see the bottom edge of the cardstock to make sure you punch in a straight line. You will know once you try it what I mean.)

3. It was folded so the one punched edge is even with the back right side of the card.

4. I turned the punch to do the sides, starting to create the rounded corner first. I've tried to show that below. If you click on the image below you can see that I've made the second side transparent so you can see what you will be looking at from the back of the punch when you do the left side. Of course you have to imagine the card is everything to your right. If this is confusing for you try either of these two Border Punch Video 1 or this Border Punch Video 2 that might help.

4. Then I measured the inside of the card height and width. I used Neenah Classic Laid Millstone cardstock.

5. For the bottom half I used a piece of double sided sticky sheet half the size of the Millstone, and with tan colored mesh on top.

6. I applied a light blue ribbon from Michael's $1 bin as a seam between the top and the bottom.

7. I applied USArt Quest Mica D'Lites Gold over that for the sticky areas not covered by the mesh.

Ocean View Image:
1. The largest Spellbinders Labels One die was used with Neenah Classic Laid Solar White cardstock in my Cuttlebug.

2. I didn't have any scape stamps for the images and could never make up my mind on which ones to get, so I used Linda's card as a guide and did the rest with Twinkling H2O's and a Niji waterbrush. I also used a little bit of the Gold mica and some Baby Pink Flower Soft.

3. Anna Griffin Cream Designer Paper was used for the outside frame. I put it through the Cuttlebug to emboss only and then trimmed around the double embossed edge.

Flower Images:
1. Stamped with Brilliance Galaxy Gold on Neenah Solar White cardstock and heat set to dry ink.

2. Painted with Twinkling H2O's.

3. Ivory Flower Soft applied to the centers and then a little Twinkling H2O Yellow Drop and a tad of Rangers Stickles Yellow.

4. When dry the images were cut out.

5. The flowers and leaves were mounted with glue and 3D Glue Dots.

6. A light blue ribbon was tied around the flowers.

7. The Sand Dollar is from Fanciful Inc. online.

The colors are really much softer in real life, but this is how the camera saw it to day! Thanks for stopping by 'the blog' to look and share. Hope to be back soon!

 

 Shirley

 

A Very Shelly Christmas

I love shells, don't you? I think almost everyone does. This tree has it all if you like the ocean too. The image is Ocean Tree by Impression-Obsession and was stamped with Brilliance Galaxy Gold on Curious Ice Gold text weight paper. Stickles Glitter glues was used for the crabs, fish and starfish. Jones Tones Foil Glue and Pearl Swirl Foil were used for the little circles on the fish and the scallop shells. The starfish were stamped on a separate piece of Ice Gold cardstock and then mounted with dimensional glue dots.


The waves were done with Sparkle and Sprinkle Dimensional Glue and Starfire Glitter. I am sure any dimensional glue and transparent sparkle glitter will do. Mark Richards 3mm Pearls were applied to the ocean wave bubbles randomly. The sand along the bottom of the tree is USArtQuest Mica Flakes Gold Medium PFX702.

AMACO Bright Gold Embossing Sheet and a Cuttlebug Vintage Die was used for the upper left hand corner adornment. The open areas were filled with the dimensional glue and glitter used on the waves. The gold metal piece on the bottom right hand corner is a left over from the die cut. The way I did the corner so it wouldn't lose its shape would be another tutorial. If you would like to see how I do that, email me by going to the sidebar on the right where it says Email Me. The ribbon is grosgrain from Wal-Mart. The orange dots are Stickles Orange glitter glue.

The image was mounted on Bazzill Bling Karat and the dots were applied with a White Signo Uni-ball pen. I think I have had enough of dots for a while, but I promise nothing. :-)

I am going to try to do the stamping with Brilliance pads tutorial next. Hopefully maybe tomorrow. Thank you for stopping by "the blog".

 

 Shirley